Microsoft's UK VARs hail online Software Asset Management toolkit
Launch follows recent ratification of SAM standard and gives partners implementation support
Microsoft’s channel has welcomed the vendor’s launch of an online Software Asset Management (SAM) toolkit.
The toolkit, which went live last week, aims to guide and support both UK customers and channel partners on the implementation of SAM. It follows the recent ratification of the SAM ISO 19770-1 standard (CRN, 8 May).
Ram Dhaliwal, licensing programme manager at Microsoft UK, told CRN: “Lots of people are confused about what SAM actually is. We have taken all the different resources and tools of SAM available and put them together.”
The toolkit is based around a three-step guide to SAM implementation. It also includes tips on SAM policy creation, a search tool for SAM software and a directory of channel partners specialising in SAM implementation. For example, it is able to guide a user on how to conduct an initial software inventory, how to review and understand existing licensing agreements and how to make SAM an ongoing business process.
“This will give partners a stronger relationship with both existing and new customers,” Dhaliwal claimed.
Shaune Frohlich, chairman of SAM organisation Investors In Software, said: “VARs are likely to see lots of sales from this. Vendors committed to SAM see this as an opportunity to help end-users with their licensing models and also use it as a way to stimulate new growth in the channel.”
Tony Kingston, sales and marketing manager at VAR Deverill, said: “I hope the publication of licensing partners on this SAM toolkit will be an advantage for the channel. The free availability of such tools is crucial to their use and will help businesses discover where they are potentially under-licensed.”
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